Euler E839: On the Atmosphere of the Moon, Demonstrated by an Annular Solar Eclipse | English translation | OMH v1.0
Year: 2026
Type: other
Abstract: A complete English edition of Leonhard Euler’s Latin memoir on the atmosphere of the Moon inferred from an annular solar eclipse (E839), published in Opera postuma mathematica et physica, volume II (1862), pages 391–401. This is the forty-section Latin version, distinct from the related earlier French memoir E142. Sources: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/euler-works/839/ ; https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN584980116 ; https://manifests.sub.uni-goettingen.de/iiif/presentation/PPN584980116/manifest . Euler discusses the apparent widening of the solar annulus, proposes a model of lunar refraction, tabulates corrections to apparent distances from the lunar limb, and describes stellar-occultation measurements with a micrometer. All forty sections, all sixty-five printed table pairs and the seven original figures207–213 are retained. The historical physical interpretation is reproduced as Euler’s argument rather than presented as modern astronomical knowledge. English edition prepared by Vaibhav Shakya for Open Math Heritage. Shared passages were drafted using the project’s related E142 edition and checked throughout against the Latin version; substantive version differences and apparent source defects are documented separately. Native figures are reproduced from the Göttingen State and University Library’s digitization, whose IIIF manifest carries the Public Domain Mark. An independent AI source, mathematics and rendered-page audit covers the complete thirteen-page edition. OpenAI tools assisted with translation and LaTeX. Version 1.0 remains a machine draft with limited scholarly human inspection. This deposit contains the English PDF only. CC BY 4.0 applies solely to new translation/editorial contributions where rights subsist. The historical text is public domain; the native figure digitization is marked https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ by Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen. No new ownership is claimed over the historical images, and no modern repository cover is reproduced.
Author: Shakya, Vaibhav
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222905965